Ecological problems

The Earth is the only planet in the solar system where life exists. If you look down at the Earth from a plane you will see how wonderful our planet is. You will see blue seas and oceans, rivers and lakes, high snow-capped mountains, green forests and fields. For centuries man lived in harmony with nature until industrialization brought human society into conflict with the natural environment. Today, the contradictions between man and nature have acquired a dramatic character. With the development of civilization man's interference in nature has increased. Every year the world's industry pollutes the atmosphere with millions of tons of dust and other harmful substances. The seas and rivers are poisoned with industrial waste, chemical and sewage discharge.

One of the most important pollution problems concerns the oceans. Many ships sail in the ocean water: fishing ships, ships carrying people, ships carrying various goods and oil. If a ship loses some of the oil in the water, or waste from the ships into the ocean, the water becomes dirty. Many sea birds die because of the polluted water. Many fish are dying in the sea, others are getting contaminated. Fishermen catch contaminated fish which may be sold in markets, and people may get sick from eating them.

There are many ecological problems in fishing industry, here we consider some of them.

Cyanide fishing

Cyanides are used to capture live fish near coral reefs for the aquarium and seafood market. This illegal fishing occurs mainly in or near the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Caribbean to supply the 2 million marine aquarium owners in the world. Many fish caught in this fashion die either immediately or in shipping. Those that survive often die from shock or from massive digestive damage. The high concentrations of cyanide on reefs harvested in this fashion damage the coral polyps and have also resulted in cases of cyanide poisoning among local fishermen and their families.

Explosives

Dynamite or blast fishing, is done easily and cheaply with dynamite or homemade bombs made from locally available materials. Fish are killed by the shock from the blast and are then skimmed from the surface or collected from the bottom. The explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish and other marine organisms in the vicinity and can damage or destroy the physical environment. Explosions are particularly harmful to coral reefs. Blast fishing is also illegal in many waterways around the world.

"Walls of death"

It is not for nothing that drift nets are called "walls of death": these nets stretching for many kilometers in the ocean become a barrier for spawning migration of salmon from the ocean to the rivers. Pacific salmons and marine mammals get caught in these nets, it includes such creatures as whales, dolphins, seabirds, – even such threatened species as short-tailed albatross.

Moreover, it is the sockeye salmon that is the most valued fish species at the market, – and as a result all other catch from drift-nets is just discarded. According to experts estimates at least 60 thousand tons of fish are discarded annually.

Drift-net fishing has not only environmental, but also social negative impacts. These drift-nets become a barrier for fish on its way from ocean to the rivers where coastal fishing is carried by fishermen, including aboriginal fishermen of Kamchatka, supported by Coalition "Save the Salmon Together".

Exercise 2. Discuss the matter in a group and using information from the text and from your own experience and knowledge work out the list of the most important and dangerous ecological problems concerning the seas and the world ocean.

Exercise 3. Render the text from Russian into English.

Важным этапом в борьбе с бра­коньерским промыслом рыбы стало введение государственного портового контроля. Деятельность государственных контролирующих органов, а также принимаемые меры по созданию на на­циональном уровне системы контроля за рыболовством и налаженное взаи­модействие в этом вопросе на международном уровне привели к снижению объёмов незаконного, несообщаемого и нерегулируемого промысла в Барен­цевом море, что в итоге играет важную роль в улучшении состояния запасов трески и пикши.